Desertification

[HBS Guy]

Desertification is a major and growing ecological problem with impacts on species and populations of critters.

For now, will just define desertification:

Quote:
Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid.[2] It is the spread of arid areas caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change (particularly the current global warming)[3] and overexploitation of soil as a result of human activity.[4]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification#:~:text=Desertification%20is%20a%2...

Anybody know of previously fertile areas turning into deserts?

 

[HBS Guy]

From the wiki article:

Desertification has been neatly defined in the text of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities."[9]

 

[Squire]

Coming to a suburb near the homes of Easterners here is a sign from the gods:

 

[HBS Guy]

This is the bit I was going to add:

CERN study into Cosmic Rays.

This found not only that Cosmic Rays cannot cause water vapor nucleation leading to cloud formation. (That CRs cause clouds is a fundamental belief of AGW deniers and idiots BTW.) The geological record contains rock from a time when CRs really bombarded the earth. There was no measurable effect on the climate.

CERN found that what causes cloud formation is the presence of ammonia or biogenic compounds in the atmosphere.

 

[HBS Guy]

Next bit next week.

 

[HBS Guy]

Anthropogenic climate change has driven over 5 million km2 of drylands towards desertification

Abstract
Drylands cover 41% of the earth’s land surface and include 45% of the world’s agricultural land. These regions are among the most vulnerable ecosystems to anthropogenic climate and land use change and are under threat of desertification. Understanding the roles of anthropogenic climate change, which includes the CO2 fertilization effect, and land use in driving desertification is essential for effective policy responses but remains poorly quantified with methodological differences resulting in large variations in attribution. Here, we perform the first observation-based attribution study of desertification that accounts for climate change, climate variability, CO2 fertilization as well as both the gradual and rapid ecosystem changes caused by land use. We found that, between 1982 and 2015, 6% of the world’s drylands underwent desertification driven by unsustainable land use practices compounded by anthropogenic climate change. Despite an average global greening, anthropogenic climate change has degraded 12.6% (5.43 million km2) of drylands, contributing to desertification and affecting 213 million people, 93% of who live in developing economies.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17710-7

 

[HBS Guy]

This ongoing desertification affects critters other than us.